BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Wednesday, October 10, 1821 (approximately)
Sometime about now Beethoven returns to Vienna from Baden bei Wien. We know he was still in the bath resort town on September 30, when he hosted nephew Karl and Joseph Köferle. Later circumstances will strongly suggest he departed at least several days before October 13. In a November 12, 1821 letter, Beethoven will write to Franz Brentano, “On Staudenheim’s orders I had also to betake myself in September to Baden. As in that part of the country the weather soon became chilly, I started such violent diarrhoea that I could not stand the cure and had to rush back to Vienna.” (Emily Anderson translation of her letter 1059) The morning temperatures (at least in Vienna), when Beethoven would likely be out walking, dropped significantly between October 5 and October 8, according to the Wiener Zeitung. So Beethoven’s return to Vienna was apparently sudden, and probably fell sometime between October 6 and a couple days before October 13.